The present invention relates generally to a storage compartment of an appliance, such as a refrigerator-freezer. It is generally known in the prior art that a storage compartment of an appliance includes a plurality of drawers or baskets that can slide in and out of the storage compartment.
Typical bottom-mount household refrigerators include a fresh food compartment located at the upper portion of the refrigerator, where food items can be stored at temperatures above 0° Celsius, and a freezer compartment located at the lower portion of the refrigerator, where food items can be maintained at temperatures substantially below 0° Celsius. Various door or closure constructs are provided for closing the fresh food compartment and freezer compartment. For example, a single door hinged to the refrigerator cabinet can be employed to close off and provide access to the interior of the fresh food compartment. In addition, French-style doors hinged to the refrigerator cabinet can be used for the same purpose. In the case of the freezer compartments, doors can be provided that allow the opening to the interior of the freezer compartment to be opened and closed by movement of the doors substantially translational to the freezer door opening. In other words, the doors slide outwardly from and inwardly toward the freezer compartment opening to provide access to the interior of the freezer compartment and to close the freezer compartment respectively. The doors can have attached to them bins, baskets and the like that travel with the doors as the doors are pulled outwardly from the freezer compartment opening and pushed inwardly toward the opening to close the freezer compartment. Bins, baskets and the like also can be provided in the freezer compartment that do not travel with the doors but must be separately brought outwardly from the interior of the fresh food compartment for access.
In some prior art designs, the upper basket within the storage compartment was not visible when the drawer was opened because the basket remained inside the cabinet and the fresh food doors obstructed the line of sight to the basket when standing directly in front of the appliance. It is thus desirable to provide an upper basket that can be adjusted such that the user can decide whether the upper basket is movable with the door or whether the basket will remain inside the appliance compartment.